Citizens concerned about Amarillo brush site consolidation

by Jala Washington

The four brush sites locations throughout the city will soon be consolidated into one location. (ABC 7 Amarillo- Jala Washington)

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) —

"You take away this convenient option for residents that want to go to the brush sites, and you make them go out to the landfill...people aren't going to make that trip," Amarillo resident, Mike Coleman said.

As an Amarillo resident, Coleman feels that getting rid of brush sites will cause more illegal dumping.

"There is some validity to that claim. There may be some additional illegal dumping," City Solid Waste Superintendent, David Lehfeldt, said.

Coleman worries empty lots like the one across from his business, and alleyways, will be more cluttered with trash following the new change.

"The solid waste department has had a hard time keeping up with the alleys as far as we've seen," Coleman said.

But with new rules and regulations, the City says consolidating the four sites is their best option.

"One of the conclusions that came out of the meetings is we can't fix the problem with the four sites that we have," Lehfeldt said.

Lehfeldt says there are a variety of new regulations they now have to follow, that combined, would make keeping brush sites open dangerous.

"One of those is encroachment for residential houses. They're getting closer and closer [and] we have a lot of illegal dumping that we have to deal with," Lehfeldt said.

At the City's landfill is where people will find the compost they'll have to take their brush and trimmings.

"The compost facility is a brand new operation," Lehfeldt said. "We are going to be charging the commercial operations to dump there."

It'll stay open until 7 p.m. during summer months. However, Coleman isn't sure how he'll be able to get there before close at 5 p.m. during winter months.

"I don't know a single operator out there, any commercial or one-man show, that stops working at 4:30 [in the evening]," Coleman said.

Lehfeldt says the consolidation process will be an adjustment but will be beneficial for everyone in the long run.